S. Korean gov’t to permit lung in living donation

South Korea will include lung in living donation candidates and hand or arm and feet or legs in brain-dead donation to expand the scope of transplants.

Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday that a revision to the related law was passed on Dec. 27. The revised rule will take effect after promulgation. The ministry already had revised the enforcement decree of the organ transplant law last year.

The revision permits lung donations by living donors, expanding the candidates of organs eligible for transplant donation from the existing six - kidney, liver, bone marrow, pancreas, insulinoma, and small intestine – to seven. Until now, lung donation has been allowed only from deceased donors, which makes donations rare.

In November 2017, a medical team at Asan Medical Center in Seoul succeeded a lung transplant surgery with lung parts removed from parents of a patient for the first time in the country.

The revised law will also allow transplants of hands, arms, legs, and feet from brain dead donors.